Surprisingly, Pakistan, which has been telling the world that the abundance of water has spoiled the big land of the country, is now facing a water shortage for the Kharif season, going to start on April 1. This is perhaps the height of mismanagement by the concerned departments which could have the strategy to save the water due to the flood.
According to the sources of the Indus River System Authority (Isra), the water shortage during the Kharif season could be between 27 percent to 35 percent. Considering the shortage, the Isra would be bound to follow the controversial three-tier water management mechanism for distributing shares to provinces, which may cause conflicts among the partners of the present PMD government.
Punjab and Sind differ opinions about water conveyance losses the quantum of available water that remains unaccounted for and lost to theft, leakage, evaporation or absorbed by soil or canals and could not be used for cultivation.
As per estimates of Punjab, water losses are about 7 percent to 8 percent but according the opinion of Sind, the water losses stand at around 35 percent to 40 percent, especially on the lands that exists between Chashma and Kotri barrages. Isras technical committee, held on March 24, could not reach at a conclusion about the estimates of water available for the Kharif season due to the big gap between the estimates of water losses between Punjab and Sind.
Isras meeting was scheduled on March 30 to examine water availability estimates made by Isras technical committee and other stakeholders, especially Punjab, Sind and WAPDA.
The Chairman of Isra would head the meeting, and the participants would be all four provincial members, provincial irrigation secretaries and technical experts of Wapda, provinces and Met office. Kharif season, between April to October, is specific for cultivating all the most important crops like Rice, sugarcane, kinds of cotton, maize and mash. The meeting of Isra, scheduled on